Interests

The question I keep coming back to is: What is it for something to be good or of value?

I am intrigued by the Ancient Greek proposal that good is a notion of benefit, or in other words, that the good is the good for someone.

I investigate forms of value that on the face of it make trouble for this proposal. I am especially interested in how to think about the value of humanity, and more recently, the value of works of art. The value of humanity is a signature topic in Kantian ethics. The value of art is of recurring interest to those working in the tradition of G. E. Moore. To that extent, my work engages with the two dominant approaches to modern ethical theory.

My next project concerns excellence and its relationship to the beneficial. I am interested in how these concepts come together in the notion of the human good.